Hey hey hey!
I made one of these a while ago for
Modern History, thought that it was about time that the ancient kiddos get some love too
As many of you know (or should know!) a huge part of doing well in Ancient History is wide reading of different historians, perspectives and sources. Thus, I decided to make your job a little easier you're welcome
compiling an organised list of readings and resources that I found super useful last year while studying Ancient, including textbooks, historians works and documentaries/videos. I have organised them by topic/option. If you have any others post them below and I’ll add them to the list (particularly for some of the other options for the historial period/historical society/personality study)!
Before purchasing any of these take a look in your local/state library or see if there are any PDF’s online! A lot of these, though super helpful, are also super expensive, so shop smart
Also! Please do not feel like you need to read all of these (or even the entirety of one of these) in order to do well! I definitely didn't do this, but I did make sure to read quite a few extracts and chapters from a variety of different sources, just so that I had a well rounded and thorough understanding of the topics.
GENERAL RESOURCESSpoiler
These should be helpful no matter what options you are studying, and even cover a lot of the options themselves!
Anything written by Pamela Bradley - (The Ancient World Transformed is a fab textbook)
THE CORE: CITIES OF VESUVIUS - POMPEII AND HERCULANEUMSpoiler
Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town by Mary Beard (documentary of the same name can be found
here)
The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found by Mary Beard
Life and Death in Herculaneum by Wallace Hadrill (documentary)
Resurrecting Pompeii by Estelle Lazer
Cities of Vesuvius - Pompeii and Herculaneum by Pamela Bradley (this is a textbook - do not treat this like a historians text, i.e. quote it in essays)
ANCIENT SOCIETIES I: GREECE - SPARTAN SOCIETY TO THE BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 371 BCSpoiler
BETTANY HUGHES BETTANY HUGHES BETTANY HUGHES Watch all of her documentaries on Sparta - legit tops!
heres the link.
La Mirage Spartiate by Francois Ollier (obviously you're gonna want to try and find a translated version/extract. He's the guy that coined the phrase "Spartan Mirage"
The Spartans by Paul Cartledge (and anything else he wrote about them tbh)
PERSONALITY STUDY L: ROME - AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGERSpoiler
The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
Annals by Tacitus
Roman History by Cassius Dio
From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 by H.H. Scullard
Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire by Anthony Barrett
The Women of the Caesars by Guglielmo Ferrero
Women and Politics in Ancient Rome by Richard A. Bauman
Claudius by Barbara Levick
Diva Drusilla Panthea and the Sisters of Caligula by S. Wood
The Incredible, Vanishing Wives of Nero by S. Wood
Representing Agrippina by Judith Ginsburg.
Ancients Behaving Badly, History Channel documentary. Episode Nero.
HISTORICAL PERIOD O: ROME - THE JULIO-CLAUDIANS AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE AD 14-69Spoiler
The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
Annals by Tacitus
Roman History by Cassius Dio
From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 by H.H. Scullard
Caligula: The Corruption of Power by Anthony Barrett
The Incredible, Vanishing Wives of Nero by S. Wood
Augustus and the Julio-Claudians THE ANTI-LISTSpoiler
Resources you should definitely (in the subjective opinion of sudodds pls don't sue me) not buy/use, mainly because they either a) offer an overly simplified version of the events b) present a very one dimensional view of an issue c) are just pretty bad at showing you how to construct a sophisticated argument/thesis. Again this is just my opinion (i'm a poor uni student i can't afford legal fees pls spare me)
Excel HSC Ancient History Study Guide
Anything written by Ken Webb
FUN/INTERESTINGSpoiler
These are just resources that aren't necessarily going to help you write the best ancient history essay ever, but are just some fun, interesting and unique books/videos/websites that will hopefully make history more enjoyable
-
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (one of the best books in existence I'm not willing to debate this sorry)
-
Crash Course World History hosted by John Green on YouTube
- Anything
Epic Rap Battles of History produces. Shaka Zulu vs. Julius Caesar is v good.
- Anything created by
Horrible Histories. Legit a top notch show. Technically for kids, but it still won a British Comedy Award for the Best Sketch Show
*PS I'll probably update this every so often as I continue to read up on this stuff (yes I know I'm a massive nerd) + people send suggestions (please send suggestions
) so check back here every so often to see if there is anything new